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Cannabis Doesn't Change The Brain. Thanks Science!

There has always been a worry that the chronic use of cannabis physically changes the composition of the brain. Well, according to science, this worry was unfounded.

A new, highly detailed and controlled study into the effects of cannabis use on the brains of adults and minors was recently published in The Journal of Neuroscience. Guess what they found. Cannabis doesn’t change the brain like was previously thought.

PROVING OLD RESEARCH WRONG

This new study rebukes previous research into the matter, which found that cannabis does appear to change the brain. It has done this by taking into account certain factors that the previous research failed to recognise in their results – in a bid to show its flaws. What was this overlooked, but seemingly game changing factor from the previous research? Alcohol use. Whoops.

That is right, changes in the brain that were thought to have been a result of cannabis use are now in fact thought to be the result of alcohol. Pretty typical isn’t it? A highly toxic substance that is perfectly legal gets off scot-free, but when someone thinks a much safer plant could be doing damage everyone screams bloody murder. It just goes to show the inconsistencies of current drug policy and public perception.

THE RESEARCH

The research in question took some very detailed brain scans of 29 adult users and 29 adult non-users; as well as 50 adolescent users and 50 adolescent non-users. When comparing multiple areas of the brain, especially those previously thought to be changed by cannabis use, they found absolutely no significant difference between the two groups.

It just goes to show the importance of distinguishing correlation from causation. When alcohol is eliminated from the equation, a whole new different set of results have been obtained. So bring on the naysayers! For this research has set precedent for other researching the area to follow.